


It's Time

by anotherfngrl



Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: F/M, Friends to Lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:22:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23623837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anotherfngrl/pseuds/anotherfngrl
Summary: Jessica always seems to find herself falling apart in Gil's arms.
Relationships: Gil Arroyo/Jessica Whitly
Comments: 8
Kudos: 38
Collections: Bite Sized Bits of Fic from 2020





	It's Time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Cornerofmadness](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cornerofmadness/gifts).



"What?" Gil thunders when his office door opens, looking up in surprise to see Jessica Whitley standing in front of his desk.

"This has got to stop, Gil," she says, clearly going for 'strong and firm' but hitting desperate instead.

"Jessica, what's happened?" he asks, standing up. All of his annoyance at being interrupted is forgotten in the face of her upset.

"Malcolm came to the house for lunch," Jessica tells him shakily. "He hasn't been sleeping well, or eating."

Gil knows it's true. "That's why I sent him home for lunch," he admits. "I had to work through, but I figured you could get him to eat."

"He fell asleep on my couch," Jessica confesses quietly.

"Are you okay?" he asks immediately, coming around his desk and capturing her hands, examining her wrists, her face, looking for bruising. He knows how Malcolm's nightmares can get.

"I'm fine. He didn't hurt _me_ ," she tells him softly.

Gil sits down on his desk in front of her. "What happened?" he asks.

"He used to fight," she says softly. "That was bad- it was hard, watching him struggle. Restraining him. The nights we spent with one of us sleeping in the hall, incase he ran in his sleep. I _prayed_ his dreams would stop making him run like that, Gil. I've prayed for it for years."

Gil takes her hands again, softer now, not desperately searching her for injury but offering what comfort he can. She squeezes back gratefully, lowering her head.

"He didn't fight, this time. He just _begged_ ," she says brokenly, pain clear in her posture. Gil doesn't think he's ever seen her slump before.

"God, Jessica," he says. He can only imagine...

"He was begging Martin, Gil. Pleading, desperate. Not for himself- I think it's us Martin hurts, in his dreams," she admits tearfully.

"Oh, Jess." Gil slides into the chair beside her, pulling her into his arms. This is not the first time Jessica Whitley has sobbed into his chest, but familiarity doesn't make her pain any easier to bear.

Eventually, she sits up. "I'm sorry, Gil. I always seem to be falling apart in your arms," she apologizes.

He passes her a handkerchief. "They're yours to fall into, Jessica. Any time."

"We've done this before," she says, a sad smile on her lips. "Not so much has changed, really. Maybe you've got a touch of grey now- it suits you. You've always been so... steady."

"And you're as radiant as ever," he tells her, before his brain grinds to a halt as he remembers exactly what she means.

It had been early on in their friendship, shortly after the trial. Malcolm had just begun speaking again, but he was still moving though the world like a ghost, sleeping more in Gil's car than he could in his own bed.

Jessica had come to see him at work one day, and at first he'd thought there was some new crisis, but there hadn't been. In fact, he thinks now it was the break between crisis that had done her in, her body and mind finally able to catch up and begin to process what she'd been through. He'd borrowed the file room to talk to her, and she'd sobbed in his arms just like she did today.

Only that day she had sat up, looking at him with wide, hurt eyes. She'd asked him what to do, had told him she was lost.

He hadn't had any advice for her, had only murmured, "Oh, Jess," and held her close. But something had changed for her, in that moment- for just an instant, she'd seen him as more than her family's dutiful protector.

She'd seen him as a man, and she'd wanted him. She'd kissed him hungrily, almost desperately, and it had taken Gil a few seconds to remember why that was wrong.

It was the closest he'd ever come to cheating on Jackie. Gil is a faithful man, but the intimacy he'd shared with Jessica, while wholly nonsexual, had sparked a deep connection that had, just for a moment, hinted at something more.

"I guess in some ways, everything has changed," he tells her carefully. He pushed her away then for Jackie. But Jackie is gone now, and she had wanted him to move on.

He wonders if his wife had expected this moment, when she made him promise to let Jessica help, when she was gone.

"We've always been there for her, God knows. They're our family, Gil, and not only when they need us. They'll want to help. Jessica can be... overbearing. But she means well, my love. Let her offer what help and solace she can," she'd instructed softly, from the hospital bed she'd died in, a few days later.

Jessica smiles. "Jackie told me once, near the end, that she was glad you still had a family, in us. She said she was glad I'd be there to comfort you."

"Jess... I don't think I would've survived the days after her death without you and the kids. You and Ainsley planned the whole funeral and wake without me, and Malcolm poured me into bed every night and into my suit for the funeral when all I wanted to do was give up. You saved me," he tells her.

"You saved me, long before," she reminds him softly. "What a pair we make!"

"We could," Gil suggests softly.

"I think I would like that very much, Detective Arroyo. Very much indeed," she tells him, eyes warm.

He doesn't correct the title. This time, he's the one who pulls her in for a deep kiss. It's time.


End file.
